“Apple Inc., Google and Amazon.com Inc. were among the tech leaders that rallied behind Microsoft Corp. in its battle to stop the U.S. government from conducting so-called sneak-and-peek searches of customer e-mails,” Kartikay Mehrotra and Dina Bass report for Bloomberg. “Microsoft and its supporters argue the very future of mobile and cloud computing is at stake if customers can’t trust that their data will remain private. A group of 11 technology firms including Google said Friday in its court filing that the federal law allowing the searches goes ‘far beyond any necessary limits’ while infringing users’ fundamental rights.”

“Delta Air Lines Inc. and BP America Inc. along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other businesses also asked to join the case in support of Microsoft, saying the benefits of cloud computing won’t be realized if privacy rights aren’t protected against government surveillance,” Mehrotra and Bass report. “The Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and their backers, defend the searches, saying they need digital tools to help fight increasingly sophisticated criminals and terrorists who are savvy at using technology to communicate and hide their tracks.”

Mehrotra and Bass report, “Apple said in its filing that the frequency and volume of the government’s use of the gag orders are ‘virtually unlimited in practice because their endpoint is unclear.’ In 2016, Apple said it has received almost 600 gag orders.”

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7 Comments

MDN Headline: Apple backs Microsoft in battle against U.S. government over ‘Sneak-and-Peek’ searches

Yes citizens of the free and civilized world get ready for the battle of something it’s their way. Don’t be fooled by what they say in the papers, “Global trust in U.S. surveillance has waned since the disclosures of former CIA employee and security contractor Edward Snowden” it certainly hasn’t. The free and civilized world knows and trusts that soon after their election they will start up their war mongering machine and start to invade bomb somewhere else.

Remember 9-11, their horrible terrorist act against a civilized peaceful nation. That’s 9-11, 1973 of course, the first 9-11.

So be prepared for more battles, it’s in their DNA (Destructive Nuclear Arms).

That’s a distinct possibility though I’m not much one for hating that nation, pity and hope are more the emotions evoked for me. Pity to see what has happened to them, hope that one day they will realize how far they have strayed and get back on the path of morality.

In the meantime that possibility you bring forth is a possibility that I hope never happens. There has already been a couple of detonations of a nuclear device over a large civilian population and hopefully that will never come again.

I hope not too. But technology can be in some respects our own worst enemy. Putting devastating weaponry in the hands of a single individual is my biggest fear. You know terrorists won’t hesitate to use it if they had it. And there’s always a disgruntled soul somewhere willing to sacrifice themselves for a little revenge.

For those of you who aren’t up on Chilean history, September 9, 1973 was the date that a CIA-sponsored coup overthrew the government of President Salvador Allende. I can see how somebody who was on the losing side of that event and the following harsh repression by the Pinochet junta might still be a bit jaundiced about the United States.

Thanks for your sentiments, it’s appreciated that someone knows what I’m talking about. As your country was on the losing side of that event from a moralistic point of vies, how do the citizens feel or felt at the time.

No one so far has said, “yeah but our country made amends to the people of Chile” or “yeah but our country has brought those responsible to trial and justice was delivered” or “yeah but we implemented new laws and safeguards to ensure that has never happened.”

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it or so the saying goes approximately. The incursion into Iraq shows that the lesson has not been learned and your current president’s comment that “we must look forward, not backward” when it came to possibly prosecuting those responsible for the torture your country engaged it, and the lack of justice it continues to engage in by keeping innocents still locked away at Guantanamo on the Bay resort is a clear indication that your nation going to continue to fail to take responsibility for the horrific actions you inflict upon the world.

One day your nation is going to learn the lesson the hard way, though I’d like to hope that one day you’ll wake up on your own and realize that with great power comes great responsibility.

Thanks for your sentiments sir, they are a wonderful improvement to what I’ve gotten before from citizens of your country.